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Dirty 2014

Happy New Year, Friends!

I am totally one of those people who get super excited about a new year. I love me the refocusing power of a good goal-setting session and the feeling of a fresh start!

At the beginning of each year, I like to think I turn into a psychic who can get a sense of what the future will bring (FYI: for a woman who has a solid hit-and-miss sense of intuition, this is comical). Some years I've had this feeling of eagerness and excitement, just knowing the upcoming year was going to be a good one. Last year, however, I only sensed that it would not be a year of kicks and giggles; the only phrase that kept whispering through my head was: This year is going to be a tough one. I tried to ignore it and tell myself that oh puhleeze, this year is going to be AMAZING! But I just couldn't get it to stick.

Welp, it's definitely been a tough one, ye old 2014. I don't want to do that again.

But even after the year of ALL THE AWFUL THINGS, I'm not even going to say something like things can only go up from here! Because if there are three things 2014 has taught me, it's:

1) Things can always get worse than you think they can.
2) There isn't a limit on how many difficult situations you get in a year.
and
3) You never, ever know what's coming next, for better or for worse...or for a-little-of-both-at-the-same-time.

Now those might sound like big downers...and maybe they could be...but they are also kind of comforting and beautiful at the same time! If these are the things 2014 had to teach me, then these are the comforting, beautiful things I will strive to do with them in 2015:

1) If things can always get worse, then I will appreciate things for how they are, here and now. I will be grateful that even if things are so, so hard...it actually could be harder. I'll allow that to give me perspective and hope, instead of simply giving in to despair, bitterness, and despondence for whatever tough things I may have to deal with.

2) If there isn't a limit on trials, then I will not feel entitled to a certain amount of ease or comfort in my life. I will be grateful for the good and wonderful things (and people) I am blessed with, allowing it to keep me humble and motivate me to lift and help others. I could be where they are simply in a hardship or two.

3) If I never know what is coming next, then I will look forward with a sense of adventure and positivity. I will remember that if something difficult comes, I have made it through difficult things before with the help of my God. I will face the future with confidence and hope.

"The harrowing of the soul can be like the harrowing of the soil to increase the yield with things being turned upside down."

-Neal A. Maxwell

If 2014 was the "harrowing of the soul and the soil" for me and my family, immediate and extended, then I'm facing 2015 with the hope that this is the year of new growth; that this will be the year we start to see the fragile little seedlings start pushing their way through the freshly crumbled and softened dirt of the previous year.

Wishing you all an incredible start to this new year ahead!

...But, also, if not: if this year is your own "year of the dirt churning," (or one of many in a row), then I wish you peace, faith, and hope to get through it okay...maybe even better than before, after all is said and done. And I also wish you lots and lots of hugs.

Comments

This was so great to read today! The control freak in me always wants to be in the know...to feel like I can make all the painful trials/hardships disappear! That however, just isn't so... 2014 taught me that sometimes it's not about the "happily ever after" but about the journey... And if I constantly worry and stress over the things I can't change, I'll inevitably miss out on all the simply beautiful parts in my life! For 2015 in resolving to let it go... To live, love and trust that God is with me every step of the way!

Man 2014 was tough. For us too. We lost a former colleague and then my beloved grandma within a span of 3 short months. I ready for the dirt churning to be over but I can also say I've been refined in the process... as tough as it may be.